Headlines this week - Oct 16, 2022
Pressures on Amazon. Netflix's new ad-based product. AI as a content creation tool. A perfect storm over the chip industry. Meta gives an update on the Metaverse. Electric Vehicles accelerating
IN SUMMARY - TOP 15 TRENDS THIS WEEK
New pressures emerging for Amazon. This week we learned about TikTok’s plans to deploy fulfillment infrastructure in the US (apparently to support e-commerce operations). Meanwhile, an extra Prime day this month, aiming to increase sales, seems no to have worked so well. Efficiency initiatives continue. And workers’ unionization might finally happen (TikTok)(PrimeDay)(Efficiency)(Unions)
Netflix revealed details of its new, cheaper ad-based product, to be launched next month. It will be priced at $7/month, and will include 4-5min of ads for each hour of content. Initial reactions don’t believe this is enough to move the needle significantly. Others expect this to bring deep changes to how Netflix works (NewOffer)(Reactions)(Changes)
TikTok’s parent wants to build a leading global music app: Bytedance already owns Resso, currently working in India, Indonesia and Brazil, and is planning to launch in a dozen additional markets (WSJ)
People talk about the pros and cons of AI as a tool to create content. Microsoft announced the incorporation of an AI-powered design tool to MS360, powered by OpenAI (where Microsoft is an investor), and this makes some people optimistic about a “safe” deployment of these technologies. But at the same time a startup promoted its voice synthesis capabilities with a fake podcast involving (in theory) Joe Rogan and Steve Jobs. At least these systems are struggling to dominate Maths (Microsoft)(FakePodcast)(AIvsMaths)
Concerning applications of AI as content generator keep appearing every week. These days we heard about the opportunity to create movies with retired or even dead actors, using AI to “replicate” their looks and/or their voices. We also heard about how Chinese tech giants have started to use avatars, instead of actual people, as “influencers” in social networks, and about how this makes them less vulnerable to control by the authorities, which sounds ok… until you imagine other potential applications of the technology (FakeArtists)(Avatars)
A perfect storm for the chip industry? The combination of a dramatic slowdown in sales of digital equipment with the US export controls against China is making semiconductor companies suffer, with stocks under huge pressures. Obviously, the Chinese vendors were (directly) affected, as reflected in their stocks (PCSales)(ChineseVendors)(Stocks)
The crisis is impacting the industry’s global giants, including TSMC, Samsung and Intel. TSMC and Samsung, the giants making most the world’s chips, have managed to get a 1-year exemption in their export ban to China, but markets punished them anyway. TSMC announced cuts in their CapEx. Intel announced thousands of job cuts (Exemption)(Stocks)(TSMC)(Intel)
And the political pressure is growing, with chips perceived as a key strategic asset. This week we’ve read opinion pieces discussing how Chinese digital technologies were becoming a threat to “Global security”, and how the chips are at the center of all this. And breaking the current links with Taiwan could be the next stage, as the island is seen under the threat of a direct intervention from China (TechGeoPolitics)(Taiwan)
Meta gave an update on its Metaverse project, including a new headset, the Quest Pro, presented as a catalyst for acceleration in adoption. The target seems to be the enterprise market, and this seems to make sense given the price of the device ($1,500). Meta is positioning this as a way to enable more productive remote meetings, and is partnering with Microsoft to incorporate Teams to the ecosystem (QuestPro)(ShiftToEnterprise)(MetaMeetsMicrosoft)
But Meta’s announcements didn’t really help reduce public skepticism about the Metaverse. There have been comments about how uncomfortable it is to work in the Metaverse, about Meta’s having a “first-mover disadvantage” (e.g. vs. Microsoft), about how expensive the new headset is, and even about internal documents at Meta, that would reveal that people trying the product for the first time do not come back later (WorkInMetaverse)(FirstMover)(QuestProPrice)(InternalDocs)
Meanwhile, Google is emphasizing an alternative “virtual” environment for work communications, based on holograms. This week we also had an update on what is internally known as Project Starline (TechCrunch)
Electric Vehicles seem to gather momentum again. Tesla published results and announced record sales. BYD (the Chinese leader) too. Traditional brands talked about their partnerships to try to catch up with these emerging companies: Honda working with Sony and Nissan with Renault (Tesla-BYD)(SonyHonda)(Nissan)
Meanwhile, Volkswagen works on autonomous cars (with a Chinese partner). Volkswagen has announced a $2.4bn investment in a JV with Horizon Robotics, a successful Chinese AI chip specialist (FT)
Two key developments on “neurotechnologies” were announced: First, an implant of human neurons on a rat’s brain is claimed to have been able to influence the animals’ sensations and behaviors. Second, an in-vitro preparation with human brain-cells was able to learn to play a basic video game, in what could be seen as a first step to “hybrid” (silicon + biologic) computing (Rats)(InVitroGaming)
Biotech continues to be a hot space for startups: There is a lot of activity in projects focused on expand the duration of human life. In parallel, there is a bet to drastically reduce the costs to sequence a genome, and open the door to many practical (and some concerning) applications (Longevity)(Genomics)